MATTAPOISETT — According to painting instructor Bridget Bannon, “the important part is to show a little bit of yourself when you paint.”

She gave this advice to over 70 children and parents who picked up paintbrushes and sat down for a paint night event as a part of Mattapoisett’s Harbor Days celebrations on Sunday, July 9. 

Bannon, who has been an instructor with the New Bedford-based “Painting at Splash” for about five years, led the group through a painting of Salty, Mattapoisett’s favorite seahorse. 

She explained that while the creature itself can look hard to paint, it’s actually made up of simple shapes like circles, triangles and lines. 

But while painters followed the same instructions, she told them to look around and notice that everyone’s painting is a little bit different. 

Some young artists followed the instructions to a tee, while others opted to give their version of Salty long flowing blond hair, others went completely off script and created their own scenes with the materials provided. 

“Seaweed is really wiggly, kind of like worms,” she said while showing the group how to paint stalks of the aquatic plant surrounding Salty. “If your seaweed is different heights, the better it looks.”

Bannon will be back at Shipyard Park on Thursday, July 13 for an adult paint night as a part of Harbor Days. For more information or to register, visit https://app.getoccasion.com/p/n/vLWNwVJ3?time_slot_id=guevqLzy95tH. 

For a full schedule of Harbor Days activities, visit https://sippican.theweektoday.com/article/harbor-days-return-see-full-schedule-events/64730.